The would-be thief was knocked to the ground before the motorised pair, both of Swindon, Wiltshire, ran off into the distance.

The two spritely great-grandmothers said they refused to let the “weasel” bring them down.

Eileen told how she saw the villain eyeing up Margaret’s basket before he attempted to steal a brand new pair of trousers from her bag.

She said the next few moments were a bit of a blur but all she remembers is accelerating and knocking the yob to the floor.

Speaking earlier, Eileen, who has four children, 10 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren, said: “I saw him look into my basket and I said ‘oh no you don’t’, really loudly.

“I put my scooter into accelerate and turned really fast. The next thing I know he was on the floor. I thought ‘my gosh’.

“Something in me just told me to turn so I squeezed the accelerator and turned and he went flying.

“He was so evil looking.

“We go to the lunch club every week on our scooters and nothing like this has ever happened before.

“We went through the war and all the bombings. We won’t let a weasel like that hold us back.

“I would stand up for myself again if I needed to, but hopefully I won’t need to.

“We will carry on as normal though, he hasn’t put us off.”

Scene: The area where Eileen and Margaret were attacked (Image: SWNS)

Mum-of-three Margaret, who has eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, added: “We’ve been friends for ten years and we are always on our scooters together, nothing like this has happened before.

“I don’t think it’ll happen again now either, I certainly hope not.

“They were obviously targeting us because they thought we’d be an easy target - he was wrong.

“We’re just so surprised by the response we’ve had.

“We just want to warn people not to leave things on display in their baskets, put it in the back or leave it on your lap, hidden by a coat.”

Eileen added: “Everyone on Facebook has been going crazy - I can’t believe it. Everyone has been so supportive of us. We just can’t believe it all really.”